ELDON L. HAM

Law does not operate in a vacuum—it is but one element in a continuum of history, economics, and sociology.

The practice of law rewards questions as much as answers like: why did the Supreme Court exempt baseball from anti-trust laws?

Understanding law requires a sense of history: the international successes of Jesse Owens made it possible for Jackie Robinson to break the baseball color barrier, and in turn for the Jackie Robinson paradigm shift to influence school integration with Brown v. Board of Education.

The lawyer should be a counselor and facilitator. The first priority is to find a way to achieve the client's desired results, to counsel the client if there is a better way, and to dissuade the client or kill ideas as a last resort.